The God of English

Her name was Mrs. Wagner. I can not remember the last time we spoke and I would not be able to tell you anything about where the trajectory of life has placed her, but Mrs. Wagner was my 7th grade English teacher and she was the reason I wrote my first poem. Revisiting grade school memories is like trying to remember old stories from Greek mythology, distant and vague but powerful in the way that ancient wars still leave their mark. Grade school felt like Greek mythology where the teachers were the gods and we were their subjects. We were subjected to the will of Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon and Athena but Mrs. Wagner was Athena. She was the god of wisdom and she was the queen of her classroom. During the fall we did a study on poetry. We learned the basics Sonnets, Limericks, and the wild west of free verse. After we finished learning, Mrs. Wagner said our assignment was to go home and write a poem of our own. 

I remember sitting in the guest bedroom of our house in New Orleans, on a computer that could do far less than my iPhone can do, writing a poem because I had to. Writing because the god of English told me to. The next day, we read our poems in front of the entire class. This was the first time I had ever written a poem and standing in front of the class, it felt like I was jumping off a diving board for the first time. I took a deep breath and began to read. Each word felt like falling, but as the last word rolled off my tongue and landed in the room, there was silence. The silence felt like a prayer, as if we had stepped inside a moment that was bigger than the time it consumed. I was unsure if the room was filled with silent prayers of joy or disdain but Mrs. Wagner broke the silence to say she was proud of what I had done.

That day began a journey for me that has not stopped. I wrote my first poem because I had to but I'm sharing some of my work but I want to. In the end, I hope you find my writing worth more than the time it takes to read. 

Also, if you run into Mrs. Wagner, please let her know that I'm forever thankful.

Blessings, 

Jared